In a production process of beverages such as beer and soft drinks, for example, containers of the beverages are delivered on pallets and removed from the pallets stage by stage. A plurality of containers are transported as groups. As shown in FIG. 16, a funnel-like single row transport path ultimately turns the containers into a single row for a filling machine to fill the contents. Equipment for transporting such containers from pallets vertically stacks in stages a plurality of container groups each including a plurality of standing containers arranged and collected in a horizontal direction, carries and elevates, stage by stage, the plurality of container groups stacked vertically by means of a lift device, receives an uppermost container group elevated by the lift device, moves the group horizontally by a pushing device onto an adjacent airflow conveyer, switches a forward-fall preventive device to an open state to discharge the container group onto the airflow conveyer, and transports the discharged containers by the airflow conveyer to a next process. The movement from the lift device to the airflow conveyer is executed by what is known as a container group transfer mechanism.
As shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, for example, this type of container group transfer mechanism 2 conventionally employs a construction having a frame 190a with props 190b erected thereon, and a forward-fall preventive device 24 having arms 191a disposed at opposite ends thereof and pivotally supported by the props 190b, whereby the forward-fall preventive device 24 is vertically pivotable to open and close.
[First Problem to be Solved by the Invention]
According to the container group transfer mechanism constructed to be vertical pivotable to open and close, a container group 4 may be moved reliably from the pallet to the conveyer. However, it is necessary to secure a space for movement of the props 190b occurring with the horizontal movement of the container group transfer mechanism 2, and a retraction space for allowing the forward-fall preventive device 24 to retract forwardly and above the container group transfer mechanism 2 when switched to the open state for discharging the container group.
Currently, in the beverage production process, the container transport is effected at high speed and various containers are transported. The containers tumble or become damaged on the conveyer. However, the conventional container group transfer mechanism 2 has problems not only that it is impossible to accommodate, in a space above said receiving device, for example, a monitoring instrument for monitoring a state of the container group transferred to said receiving device, or a device of different function such as a container tumbling preventive mechanism, but that it is impossible to use a conveyer such as an airflow conveyer having an upper guide for tumble preventing purposes.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a container group transfer mechanism capable of allowing, for example, a monitoring instrument or a device of different function such as a container tumbling preventive mechanism to be disposed in a space above the container group transfer mechanism, or capable of using container transporting equipment with a tumbling preventive upper guide, and container transporting equipment.
[Second Problem to be Solved by the Invention]
In the container transporting equipment which receives, in the container group transfer mechanism, the uppermost container group elevated by said lift device, transports it onto the adjacent conveyer by horizontal movement, discharges said container group onto said conveyer by opening the forward-fall preventive device, thereafter moves said container group transfer mechanism back onto said lift, and repeats the above process again to receive a next container group, where an arrangement is employed to receive the next container group after moving said container group transfer mechanism back onto said lift device and closing the forward-fall preventive device, the time until said forward-fall preventive device is closed and the time from the closure of said forward-fall preventive device until the next container group is received are required separately, thus a long time is taken to receive the container group, resulting in a low container transporting efficiency.
Then, where an arrangement is employed to receive the next container by the time said forward-fall preventive device is closed, the closure of said forward-fall preventive device and reception of the next container group may be carried out simultaneously to shorten the time taken to receive the container group and to improve the container transporting efficiency container. At this time, however, there occurs a risk that, when an operation is performed to close said forward-fall preventive device, said forward-fall preventive device swings to excess under inertia, instead of stopping in home position, and strikes, with impact, the container received in said container group transfer mechanism, thereby damaging said containers.
A second object of the present invention is to employs a container group transfer mechanism in which said forward-fall preventive device does not move upward, in order to eliminate the above problem and improve the container transporting efficiency, and to provide a container group transfer mechanism which, even where an arrangement is employed to receive next containers by the time the forward-fall preventive device is closed, reduces the force of inertia acting on the forward-fall preventive device in a closing operation to decrease the impact of contact with the containers, thereby to check damage to the containers.
[Third Problem to be Solved by the Invention]
Conventionally, the forward-fall preventive device needs to behave in opening or closing time such that containers that tumble easily are transported by deliberately maintaining the contact with the pushing device as far as the airflow conveyer to avoid scattering during the transport, and that containers vulnerable to damage are transported in a rather loose state to check damage by minimizing the pressure of contact among the containers or by the pushing device. However, there is no method for controlling this. An apparatus or method having transport functions corresponding to such transport modes has not been developed.
A third object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide container transporting equipment and a container transporting method having transport functions corresponding to transport modes for controlling a pushing speed of the pushing device for pushing container groups out onto the airflow conveyer, in relation to a container transport speed of the airflow conveyer, thereby to solve the above problem.